Errant Prince

The Errant Prince by Sasha L. Miller

Age: Young Adult / Adult
Category: Romance, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
Rating: 3 stars

Rosie Thinks: Ever since Prince Tamsen ran away from the palace seven years ago, he's been living the secluded life of a hermit, surrounded by his herbs and his books. Guardsman Myron has been charged to find him and bring him home. No others have managed to force him back to the palace, so Myron tries a different tact: patience.

Myron is an easily loveable character, easy-going and mischievous, and stubborn enough to outlast Tamsen. Tamsen, on the other hand, isn't what Myron was expecting at all. Despite acting like a brat at times, Tamsen relishes his simplistic lifestyle and isn't keen on being dragged away from it. The book spent the first half in Myron's POV, then the second half in Tamsen's. I'm never usually a fan of alternating POVs, but the rigidity and consistency of this actually served to improve the storytelling, for once!

This isn't a long book - only 40 000 words - but Sasha L. Miller still manages to weave a unique and realistic story within that. It deals with a whole range of issues, including personal identity and acceptance, court politics, a transexual character, and the romance weaved into all of it. Despite it being a romance, there's nothing explicit, making it a story that can reach a wider age range.

If you're looking for an in-depth character study, you won't find it here. Instead, this story is a sweet romance that doesn't focus on the unnecessary drama that so many other romances seem to - in particular, I'm referring to the grand 'misunderstanding' that always seems to appear in love stories these days. Myron and Tamsen actually communicated, like the grown adults they are! That's not to say that they didn't have their troubles along the way - rather, the author was more creative in creating drama that was realistic and interesting.

This story was like a breath of fresh air, staying away from the usual stereotypes of a romance story that I'm sick of seeing. It's not overly complicated, but consistently remains a cute romance throughout, and one that I would recommend to anyone!